finger pointing

It's not nice to point fingers.  We don't like to blame or shirk responsibility but really, we're going to.  Because we had absolutely nothing to do with this...

Call it a misunderstanding.  Call it a communication break down.  Call it a disaster.

Either way, we're biding our time and waiting for the hair to grow...

Do you think if we stare at the claws, the hair will grow faster?? Maybe if I lick them constantly it'll help...

Bad groomer! Bad groomer!

Conversations

She got mad at me for not listening this morning.  She grabbed my face and spoke in that spooky quiet voice that means “I’m very angry and trying hard to control myself right now.”  She got mad and I didn’t even realize that there was a problem.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t listening to her yell “Come, Gracie, Come right now!” it was just that it was background noise.  I couldn’t really hear her over the siren call of the French fries lying in the grass combined with the thrill of approaching dogs to go greet.  So I wasn’t trying to be bad or ignore her.  Her message just didn’t get through. 

That’s the thing with this whole talking bit.  I have to be a) paying attention, b) know what the words mean, and c) able to understand her, and d) willing to engage in the conversation.  That’s a lot of requirements to be fulfilled all of the time.  She just assumes that her voice is the only one I’m paying attention to.  What she doesn’t realize is that there’s the lull of the wind, the noise of traffic, the swish of other dog tails wagging, and the screams of cat food lying in the grass all competing for my attention.  I know that she carries treats for me, but frankly, given the choice between carrot slices and French fries…I mean come on, I’m not an idiot!

It’s it the same with you humans? Don’t you have lots of voices swirling around those big heads of yours? Don’t you have nagging thoughts of to-do lists, ponderings about events earlier in the day, anxieties about things to come mixed with the chatter of your friends? Isn’t it sometimes hard to focus on what the person in front of you is saying? No one is getting your hearing checked or assuming you’re misbehaving when you zone out.  Or is it only me that happens to?

Wait…what was I saying?

Sorry, I got lost in the scent of my stuffed toy for a second and distracted by the bird outside…were we having a conversation?

Lost! Please return to Israel. Large Reward

So some two-legged folks are all in a tizzy over some billboard ads that have now been taken down.  From what I can gather as I scrounge under the picnic tables in a hunt for food, the Israelis launched an ad campaign targeted at Israelis living in America to convince them to move back home.  And this seems to have pissed off some tall Jewish Americans. 

Were their feelings hurt that the Israelis didn’t want them? That I could understand.  When I was in the shelter, there would be all of these nice looking families that would come and walk right by my cage to go and ooh and aah over the wriggly puppies.  Fine. Just because I was almost five doesn’t mean I’m not cute and adorable.  I guess my old home wasn’t as attached to me as the Israelis seem to be about their former citizens because I was just abandoned…no signs, no ad campaign, nothing. 

So maybe the American Jews were hurt that the Israelis didn’t take them home from the shelter.  Or maybe they felt slighted that the Israelis were saying their home wasn’t as good as the homes in Israel.  Really? Are we all in kindergarten? It reeks of “my dad can beat up your dad” mentality.  But the American Jews have a forever home already, so I’m not really clear on what the problem was.  The Israelis that seem to have gotten lost were the ones that the ads were for.  Kind of like those “Lost Puppy.  Large reward if found” posters that always make my mom cry.  I would think that they would be thrilled to know that their parents were searching for them all the way across the world.  That’s a far way to wander away from home.  No wonder the Israelis needed large billboards!

So I’m not sure what the big deal was.  If I got lost, I would hope my mom would put up billboards to look for me, and I wouldn’t care if the other puppies were mad that she didn’t want them.  She’s my mom and it’s my home. 

Everybody deserves a forever home, and if you wander too far away, sometimes you need a big reminder which direction to travel. 

The view from down here

She said she felt bad for us, having to live our lives ten inches off the ground.  That the view “must be so boring.”  Oh, Tillie Lou’s mom, you couldn’t be more wrong.  Have you spent time down here in this doggy wonderland of sights and scents? I think not! I don’t know about Tillie, but I’d much prefer the view from down here.  

Up there, where you guys live with your heads in the clouds, it’s all air and open spaces…boring.  Down here there are blades of grass with pee-mail, dropped morsels of picnics, mud crawling with wriggly worms, sticks to munch, flowers to sniff, and puddles to splash in.  I don’t have to sit at my computer to catch up with friends via email– I get to do it at the park, sniffing bushes and branches marked by friends and answering back with a quick squat.  And some of those socks you guys wear make for entertaining views themselves.  

I guess it would be nice to stare at something other than your ankles while we’re walking and to be able to reach the kitchen table.  But don’t feel bad for me.  It’s a whole different world down here and I literally get to watch the grass grow.

By the way, mom, you might want to vacuum under your sofa.  For someone as obsessively clean as you, you do not want to see what’s under there!